An article on Blend Games contains a video they say demonstrates that item duping was possible in Diablo III before a hotfix addressed this. All the clip demonstrated for me is my inability to understand foreign languages, but this post explains how this took advantage of the game's checkpoint system to craft items at the cost of no resources, hopefully a moot point now that its fixed. They use this incident to once again question the game's inconvenient always-on DRM. They also discuss how Blizzard is handling account rollbacks in cases where accounts are compromised, taking issue with Battle.net account security as the launch of the real-money auction house for the action/RPG sequel nears. Speaking of which, this post (thanks nin via Kotaku) notes that Blizzard has changed the terms of service for Diablo III to require the use of their authenticator for real-money transactions:

Starting today, in order to add to your Battle.net Balance, players will be required to have a Battle.net Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator attached to their Battle.net account. For clarity, this means you’ll need to have an Authenticator to add to your balance via Battle.net Account Management or to send the proceeds of your real-money auction house sales to your Battle.net Balance.

Please note that players who previously added Battle.net Balance to their account prior to this change will be able to use it to make eligible purchases on Battle.net and in the auction house without attaching an Authenticator. However, an Authenticator will be required to add to your balance in the future, as explained above.

While we understand that this creates an extra step for players during the login process, we believe this added layer of account protection will help foster a safer auction house environment for all of our players.

You can learn more about the Battle.net Authenticator, Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, and other account security information by clicking here.

AngelicPenguin wrote on Jun 13, 2012, 12:12:I dunno, I read that review. The reviewer never figured out to turn on elective mode, so he could play a build he wanted to. I do get that it isn't the most obvious option, but I would find the skill system very limiting without it too.

I don't blame someone for missing it, even a reviewer.

In fact, Blizzard said that they don't want that option to be obvious. They said its too confusing for new players, and that in testing when stuff like that was on, it confused new players. They said that anyone who needs to play with that will know about how to do it, and the rest probably don't want to play it like that.

They were talking about it in the AMA on reddit, and thats what I got out of what they were saying. Seems pretty stupid to me. At the very least, after finishing the game on normal, if its still off, the game should popup something and mention it. Its an important option for people who intend to play up into inferno.

I agree that option should be front and center - at least after you unlock a few other skill slots. I've played the game with a few non-gamers and they preferred it as well. Saves them from the "I don't want to get rid of this to use this" problem.

AngelicPenguin wrote on Jun 13, 2012, 12:12:I dunno, I read that review. The reviewer never figured out to turn on elective mode, so he could play a build he wanted to. I do get that it isn't the most obvious option, but I would find the skill system very limiting without it too.

I don't blame someone for missing it, even a reviewer.

In fact, Blizzard said that they don't want that option to be obvious. They said its too confusing for new players, and that in testing when stuff like that was on, it confused new players. They said that anyone who needs to play with that will know about how to do it, and the rest probably don't want to play it like that.

They were talking about it in the AMA on reddit, and thats what I got out of what they were saying. Seems pretty stupid to me. At the very least, after finishing the game on normal, if its still off, the game should popup something and mention it. Its an important option for people who intend to play up into inferno.

AngelicPenguin is a contrarian. He probably never takes a stance on an issue until he knows the general consensus so he can feel 'special' by taking the unpopular position. This is a debilitating psychological malady that's caused by too much arguing on the internet.

The Bad:- Always-on connection is always bad- Distinctly dumbed down character system- Lack of visual character customization is a shortcoming- Tremendously vulnerable to external Internet instability- "Play it how we tell you to play it" is precisely as much fun as it sounds

Score: 4.5 / 10

I dunno, I read that review. The reviewer never figured out to turn on elective mode, so he could play a build he wanted to. I do get that it isn't the most obvious option, but I would find the skill system very limiting without it too.

heh. I won't even bother going to a site and giving them the traffic if they give a 4.5 out of 10 for this game. Think of the other games that are 4.5 - this is way beyond that level of scrutiny.

The Bad:- Always-on connection is always bad- Distinctly dumbed down character system- Lack of visual character customization is a shortcoming- Tremendously vulnerable to external Internet instability- "Play it how we tell you to play it" is precisely as much fun as it sounds

Score: 4.5 / 10

I dunno, I read that review. The reviewer never figured out to turn on elective mode, so he could play a build he wanted to. I do get that it isn't the most obvious option, but I would find the skill system very limiting without it too.

Sepharo wrote on Jun 12, 2012, 23:14:"No one is having any issues" is a hilarious thing to say in regards to Diablo 3.

Well, again, I was referring to my group of friends who play the game, not everyone. You are taking that quote out of context. I do stand by it, though. None of them have been hacked, and as I said earlier, I expect maintenance and some lag occasionally in an online game.

If you can give me some issues that would amount to "mountains of bullshit" (not your words I know, but that was the quote I responded to that started this discussion) I could specifically ask them if they have this issue(s). I suppose they could be but are just not saying anything about it, but if you knew some of them, they will complain about anything.

Sepharo wrote on Jun 12, 2012, 23:14:liking the game is a very popular stance

I'll just have to agree to disagree. If you go into the comments on any diablo 3 posting there are usually a few people who say positive things about it, but the majority of the posts are very negative, so it certainly does not seem a popular stance to me.

I guess that's just how forums are, though. Most people seem to go to them to complain. I get it though, it's human nature. If you say you like something it opens you up to ridicule, while when you are trashing something you are doing the ridiculing (if that's even a word.)

The Bad:- Always-on connection is always bad- Distinctly dumbed down character system- Lack of visual character customization is a shortcoming- Tremendously vulnerable to external Internet instability- "Play it how we tell you to play it" is precisely as much fun as it sounds

BTW, turns out that you do NOT need authenticator for RMAH. You only need it to put it into your battle.net balance. If you send it to paypal instead, you do NOT need the authenticator ?!Seems backwards to me, you'd think that just doing a battle.net balance to buy other blizzard games would need less security, not more, since paypal deals with the real money.

AngelicPenguin wrote on Jun 12, 2012, 00:31:You mentioned "mountains of bullshit", "a lot of inconvenience", "a lot of crap" which I just don't see and virtually every one of my gaming friends is playing this game and no one is having any issues.

You sound like Baghdad Bob or Officer Barbrady saying this stuff on posts talking about issues.

Many of the people who post here have the game, and just about all of us know many friends who do as well. My friends have been hacked, have dealt with lag, and have experienced the poor inferno balancing. It's hard to believe that nobody in your circle of gaming friends have had "any issues".

Which "posts"? I responded directly to someone who responded to my post. He complained in vague terms and I responded everything is ok here and asked for more specifics.

I don't know who those people (Bob or Barbrady, although I assume it's something derogatory) are, but I am genuinely speaking from experience.

I meant posts as in Blue's news items talking about issues. Baghdad Bob is the nickname for the Iraqi Minister of Information during the 2003 invasion who would alternate between claiming there was no invasion and that Iraq was winning, even while U.S. tanks rolled through his camera shot in the background. Officer Barbrady is the cop from South Park known for his "Nothing to see here, move along" catchphrase as shit was obviously going down right behind him. So when you not only claim that you haven't experienced any issues but neither have every one of your gaming friends, I find that hard to believe and make that comparison. "No one is having any issues" is a hilarious thing to say in regards to Diablo 3.

I do get that liking this game is an unpopular stance, so I should probably just keep quiet.

Well that's where you're wrong... Many people like the game, liking the game is a very popular stance. But just because you enjoy the game doesn't mean you can't have issues with it, as you (or at least one of your gaming friends) have most assuredly been affected by at least one of the issues posted here over the past few weeks.

and are going to add lots of interesting affixes to make items more fun.]

Hmm, where did they post this?

I read it on the discussion on reddit with Jay and some of the other designers/developers earlier this week. I would hate to misquote someone but I am almost positive they said they would have some cool affixes that no other items have to make them more legendary.

Only fixing legendary items doesn't sound like it will fix the fundamental problem of 99.9999% of loot being boring. Legendaries are so rare that changing those alone will have very little impact on the fun factor.

This was under the discussion about making legendary items cooler. I'm pretty sure there was more discussion about non-legendary items as well.

Ok, I've only heard that they were planning changes to legendary stuff. Haven't heard anything about other items.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

and are going to add lots of interesting affixes to make items more fun.]

Hmm, where did they post this?

I read it on the discussion on reddit with Jay and some of the other designers/developers earlier this week. I would hate to misquote someone but I am almost positive they said they would have some cool affixes that no other items have to make them more legendary.

Only fixing legendary items doesn't sound like it will fix the fundamental problem of 99.9999% of loot being boring. Legendaries are so rare that changing those alone will have very little impact on the fun factor.

This was under the discussion about making legendary items cooler. I'm pretty sure there was more discussion about non-legendary items as well.

and are going to add lots of interesting affixes to make items more fun.]

Hmm, where did they post this?

I read it on the discussion on reddit with Jay and some of the other designers/developers earlier this week. I would hate to misquote someone but I am almost positive they said they would have some cool affixes that no other items have to make them more legendary.

Only fixing legendary items doesn't sound like it will fix the fundamental problem of 99.9999% of loot being boring. Legendaries are so rare that changing those alone will have very little impact on the fun factor.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

and are going to add lots of interesting affixes to make items more fun.]

Hmm, where did they post this?

I read it on the discussion on reddit with Jay and some of the other designers/developers earlier this week. I would hate to misquote someone but I am almost positive they said they would have some cool affixes that no other items have to make them more legendary.

and are going to add lots of interesting affixes to make items more fun.

Hmm, where did they post this? All I've seen so far is that they are going to revisit legendaries. I hope that turns out to be true, the loot really needs something other than stats and low percentage to blind type crap.

I mean they have already stated that they are adjusting the inferno difficulty curve, are going to look at some of the nastier monster combinations,

Fair enough. I mean, I agree with you that they will eventually iron out these problems but I'm just not as optimistic about the timeline nor the proposed solutions I've seen so far. Just an example of what I said earlier about not fixing things necessarily how people want them, look at their comments on how they are fixing minions. "The leader of the invulnerable minion pack will have reduced HP". That's a bandaid to the larger symptom - it is simply not fun to be hit and unable to return the favor due to an invulnerability. Some mob combos are so fast that if you can't snare them then you can't beat them. It is not a fun gameplay mechanic, it doesn't really promote any strategy other than kiting your ass off.

So they will make some changes but I don't just assume the changes will be wonderful and fix everything up. Sure it's in their best interest to do so but that doesn't mean they will take the path of least resistance getting there It might take a whole expansion to add the kind of content changes I think are necessary for longterm longevity but I don't know what their content patch plans are. Anyways, good discussion, cheers

But don't you think it's in their self interest to make the game enjoyable long term?

No idea where you inferred that as I didn't say it. .

Oh I wasn't implying you said that - probably a poor way to phrase it. I was simply meaning that, while there are lots of issues that you pointed out, it seems to me that if the game isn't made fun (items/inferno) then people won't keep coming back to it.

I mean they have already stated that they are adjusting the inferno difficulty curve, are going to look at some of the nastier monster combinations, and are going to add lots of interesting affixes to make items more fun. (In addition to making legendaries stronger than most blues/yellows.)

But don't you think it's in their self interest to make the game enjoyable long term?

No idea where you inferred that as I didn't say it. Who's to say they will "fix" it how people want though? Their design ideas seemed to differ quite a bit already from previous iterations and despite that conflict they pressed ahead.

Sure I'm hopeful that they revisit the loot tables but I don't take it for granted as they seem to have a lot of concern with how things balance and whatnot, as if this was an MMO title or something. Cautiously optimistic I guess. To be fair though D2 wasn't perfect and the expansion fixed a lot of the problems.

Verno wrote on Jun 12, 2012, 11:37:The thing is that if the loot tables were a bit more interesting I don't think people would be so impatient. You found tons of interesting items all the time in Diablo 2, everything from uniques to low level set items and so on. They really failed in that regard with this game, the heavy focus on main stat/vit is incredibly boring and the lack of unique loot makes everything feel homogenous. The gameplay is solid but not so amazing that it can stand on its own without diverse loot tables.

So I mean while I see where the "JUST HAVE FUN AND CHILLAX" crowd is coming from, people obviously want different things from the game and D3 doesn't cater to those interests as well as its predecessor did.

But don't you think it's in their self interest to make the game enjoyable long term? From reading interviews with the creators if you read between the lines it sounds like they were so concerned with balance they missed the fun part of the items. Now that they are aware of it, I don't see why they wouldn't go in and do it.

How long that takes, I'm not sure, but I am sure of this - they are going to make it (more) fun because that will make them more money, which is fine by me.

The thing is that if the loot tables were a bit more interesting I don't think people would be so impatient. You found tons of interesting items all the time in Diablo 2, everything from uniques to low level set items and so on. They really failed in that regard with this game, the heavy focus on main stat/vit is incredibly boring and the lack of unique loot makes everything feel homogenous. The gameplay is solid but not so amazing that it can stand on its own without diverse loot tables.

So I mean while I see where the "JUST HAVE FUN AND CHILLAX" crowd is coming from, people obviously want different things from the game and D3 doesn't cater to those interests as well as its predecessor did.

Verno wrote on Jun 12, 2012, 11:05:The game isn't really difficult at all until Inferno IMO, I can't even recall dying unless server lag was involved until I hit Inferno. So I mean in that sense you're right, you don't need the AH...until Inferno. Inferno Act 1 is a whole different thing from Act 2 beyond though, you need the AH to gear up for the latter because the drops simply don't happen in Act 1. The only way I geared up for the later acts of Inferno was abusing resplendent chest spawns and treasure goblins, I was lucky because I got it done before they got hotfixed. Now gearing up for that content involves a significant amount of gold which keeps increasing daily due to botter gold flooding the economy.

Melee classes have it a lot worse than ranged in this regard, ranged can get away with having a good weapon but melee need a shitload of armor, all resist, vit and main stat gear. My buddy is a Barb who practically melts when anything touches him in Inferno Act 2 despite spending over a mil in AH gear.

These are things they've admitted already are problems and are looking into addressing but in the meantime that's not much of a consolation to people trying to do this content.

I have read this and experienced some of this as well. This is why I simply started new characters when I hit inferno after dabbling in it for a bit. I figured balancing the end game would take some time, so no reason to really worry much about it yet.

The game isn't really difficult at all until Inferno IMO, I can't even recall dying unless server lag was involved until I hit Inferno. So I mean in that sense you're right, you don't need the AH...until Inferno. Inferno Act 1 is a whole different thing from Act 2 beyond though, you need the AH to gear up for the latter because the drops simply don't happen in Act 1. The only way I geared up for the later acts of Inferno was abusing resplendent chest spawns and treasure goblins, I was lucky because I got it done before they got hotfixed. Now gearing up for that content involves a significant amount of gold which keeps increasing daily due to botter gold flooding the economy.

Melee classes have it a lot worse than ranged in this regard, ranged can get away with having a good weapon but melee need a shitload of armor, all resist, vit and main stat gear. My buddy is a Barb who practically melts when anything touches him in Inferno Act 2 despite spending over a mil in AH gear.

These are things they've admitted already are problems and are looking into addressing but in the meantime that's not much of a consolation to people trying to do this content.